A Ghost for Today

This exhibition brought together work by artist Diana Taylor (b.1977). Taylor’s research is focused on deconstructing and reassembling aspects of Morris’s work and involves methods of making and un-making. The objects on display used various techniques of appropriation, such as assemblage, bricolage and collage, to explore the continuing impact that fragments of the past have upon the present.

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Comprising paintings, textile assemblages, woven fabric, embroideries and wallpaper prints alongside original work by William Morris, the exhibition showcased Taylor’s interest in the loss and ruins of history and how they influence the physical world around us. Focusing on the concept of ‘hauntology’— the idea that elements of the cultural and social past persist in the present—Taylor’s practice reinterprets Morris’s designs, themselves heavily influenced by the past, to create new work that translates some of his most recognisable patterns for the twenty-first century.

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The exhibition was held at the William Morris Gallery from February to March 2022.